Armed gang kills six in Mexico carwash: police

CULIACAN: An armed gang stormed a carwash in northwest Mexico and shot six people dead, police said Friday, in the latest gangland-style attack.

Five of the victims were employees of the carwash in the coastal city of Mazatlan and another appeared to have been a customer, said a local police chief in Sinaloa state, requesting anonymity.

In a similar attack, 15 youths, mainly recovering drug addicts, were shot dead in a carwash in the nearby state of Nayarit in October, amid an increasingly brutal wave of suspected drug violence across Mexico.

Officials blame more than 12,000 murders in 2010, and 30,000 since 2006, on the country's powerful drug gangs.

Attacks have risen since President Felipe Calderon ordered a military crackdown on criminal organizations after taking office in December 2006.